HANCOCK, N.Y. — If you didn't know where to look, you'd probably never find Islamberg, a private Muslim community in the woods of the western Catskills, 150 miles northwest of New York City.

The town, sitting on a quiet dirt road past a gate marked with No Trespassing signs, is home to an estimated 100 residents. There are small houses and other buildings visible from the outside, but it is what can't be seen from beyond the gate that has some watchers worried.

Islamberg was founded in 1980 by Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who purchased a 70-acre plot and invited followers, mostly Muslim converts living in New York City, to settle there.

The town has its own mosque, grocery store and schoolhouse. It also reportedly has a firing range where residents take regular target practice. Gilani established similar rural enclaves across the country — at least six, including the Red House community in southern Virginia — though some believe there are dozens of them, all operating under the umbrella of the "Muslims of the Americas" group founded by Gilani.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510218,00.html

Gingersnap

03-24-2009, 03:35 PM

Let's try to guess how many black Baptists, fabulous gays, female police officers, and Future Farmers of America this town holds. :rolleyes:

We have a lot of "intentional communities" out here in Colorado. It's always problematic.

stsinner

03-24-2009, 04:43 PM

Wonderful... And it's blurred out in Google Earth...

Sonnabend

03-24-2009, 05:12 PM

"It's a village," he insisted, "with people of all backgrounds, cultures and races."

Really?

Care to open the door and allow public access to prove it? No? Didnt think so.

Taqquiya.

PoliCon

03-24-2009, 08:14 PM

Let's try to guess how many black Baptists, fabulous gays, female police officers, and Future Farmers of America this town holds. :rolleyes:

We have a lot of "intentional communities" out here in Colorado. It's always problematic.They never work . . .:rolleyes:

noonwitch

03-25-2009, 09:04 AM

It sounds like a cult, to me.

Odysseus

03-25-2009, 10:25 AM

It sounds like a cult, to me.

It is. Wahhabi Islam.

We're at the point where we have to make a distinction between political organizations with religious cover and actual religions. Any religious group that advocates the subversion of the Constitutional order of the United States is abusing its First Amendment guarantees. Just as the Second Amendment doesn't allow you to knock over liquor stores, the First Amendment doesn't allow you to impose religious doctrine on non-members of your faith.

PoliCon

03-25-2009, 10:43 AM

It is. Wahhabi Islam.

We're at the point where we have to make a distinction between political organizations with religious cover and actual religions. Any religious group that advocates the subversion of the Constitutional order of the United States is abusing its First Amendment guarantees. Just as the Second Amendment doesn't allow you to knock over liquor stores, the First Amendment doesn't allow you to impose religious doctrine on non-members of your faith.

Just one problem. In Islam - politics and religion are the self same thing. America needs to wake up and recognize that.

Odysseus

03-25-2009, 11:39 AM

Just one problem. In Islam - politics and religion are the self same thing. America needs to wake up and recognize that.

A lot of it depends on which version of Islam. Shia Islam accepts secular governments to a greater degree than Sunni, and Sufis, an offshoot of Shiism, are even open to other doctrines and faiths. The big problem is that the Saudis have made their specific brand of Islam, Wahhabism, into their major export after oil. They have spent billions of dollars in the US to promote Wahhabism through schools, mosques and various think tanks. In doing so, they have corrupted our education system, our religious values and our government. For example, there is an estimate that over 80% of the mosques in America are leased by one agency, the Islamic Society of North America, which is a Saudi front. Those mosques are staffed by Saudi imams, who spread the vitriolic Wahhabi creed to American Moslems, convincing them that this is the "authentic" version of Islam. There are, however, Moslems who oppose this and actually do want to live in a peaceful, pluralisti society. The American Islamic Congress, for example (http://www.aicongress.org/), promotes peaceful coexistence with other religions and publicly denounces Islamist terrorism and suppression of dissent in Islamic countries. For example, they came out against the jailing of an Afghan journalist who had distributed a pamphlet on women's rights in Islam and against the stoning of a Somali woman for adultery. Now, to us, these are no-brainers, but among Islamic groups, it's a rare display of genuine moderation and courage. These are the kind of people that we need to engage in order to fight the radicals.